"It is a time when one's spirit is subdued and sad, one knows not why; when the past seems a storm-swept desolation, life a vanity and a burden, and the future but a way to death."

Twain, Mark on Despair
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 8 fans >>

"The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read."

Wilde, Oscar on Literature
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 3 fans >>

"You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the one book a young man about town should know thoroughly, and it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done."

Wilde, Oscar on Aristocracy
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 1 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."

Wilde, Oscar on Love
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 9 fans >>

"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."

Wilde, Oscar on Love
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 2 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love."

Wilde, Oscar on Love Ended
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 10 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life."

Wilde, Oscar on Loyalty
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 13 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband's dinners."

Wilde, Oscar on Marriage
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 2 fans >>

"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed."

Wilde, Oscar on Marriage
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 4 fans >>

"Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable."

Wilde, Oscar on Marriage
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 1 fans >>

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."

Wilde, Oscar on Life and Living
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 12 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilized being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company."

Wilde, Oscar on Lies and Lying
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 3 fans >>

"Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart."

Eliot, George on Jealousy
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 1 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability."

Wilde, Oscar on Goodness
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 5 fans >>

"Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt."

Wilde, Oscar on Housework
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 6 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"They are horribly tedious when they are good husbands, and abominably conceited when they are not."

Wilde, Oscar on Husbands
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 1 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"The modern sympathy with invalids is morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others."

Wilde, Oscar on Illness
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 2 fans >>

"My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality."

Wilde, Oscar on Individuality
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 6 fans >>

"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."

Wilde, Oscar on Infidelity
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 9 fans >>

"There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. By carefully chronicling the current events of contemporary life, it shows us of what very little importance such events really are. By invariably discussing the unnecessary, it makes us understand what things are requisite for culture, and what are not."

Wilde, Oscar on Journalism and Journalists
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 3 fans >>

"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating --people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on Knowledge
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 6 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book

"I know, of course, how important it is not to keep a business engagement, if one wants to retain any sense of the beauty of life."

Wilde, Oscar on Meetings
Discuss quotations · Share quote · 1 fans >>

This quotation can be viewed in the context of a book